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which labour'd with me in the Gofpel, whofe Names are in the Book of Life. Take Notice here, fays Theophilat, what Virtue he attributes to the WOMEN: For that which Chrift faid to his Apoftles, Your Names are written in Heaven, Paul attributes to them, because their Names • with the others were written in the Book of Life, that is, in the Knowledge and Judgment • of God.

BUT the Objectors to Women's Preaching, bring another Text of Scripture, which they fay prohibits Women from Preaching and Teaching in the Church, and that is this; Let the Woman, Tim. 2 learn in Silence with all Subjection: But I fuffer not 11. 12. a Woman to teach, nor to ufurp Authority over the Man, but to be in Silence.

Now, upon this we obferve that the Words of the Apostle, I fuffer not a Woman to Teach, are immediately follow'd with, Nor ufurp Authority over the Man, which plainly fhows, that the Prohibition

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fluence them by his Spirit: For in Scripture we find no fuch Diftinction, but the Promise of the Holy Spirit is made to Daughters as well as Sons, to Handmaidens as well as Servants. And Paul himself has faid, There is neither few nor Greek, there is neither Bond nor Free, there is neither MALE nor FEMALE, for ye are all one in Chrift Fefus. Gal. iii. 28.

And, for this Learned Author to fay that Thecla did not teach by Authority, but by the Inftigation and Command of Paul, we think is exceeding weak, For was not the Inftigation and Command of Paul as good an Authority, as any Bishop's Ordination who may pretend to be Peter's Suc ceffor. But if what he seems to believe were really true; (tho' in our Opinion his Book has too much of the Legend) that Thecla did convert fo great a Number of Infidels to the Faith of Chrift, we rather allow that she did it by the Infti gation and Power of the Holy Ghoft, which we take to be the greateft Authority any Man or Woman can have to Preach the Gospel.

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See 1 Cor.

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hibition related to Women who ufurp'd Autho rity over the Man, and had not learnt that due Subjection which became their Sex; confequently were very unfit to Teach and Instruct others. But in our Apprehenfion, this no Ways affects Women who have receiv'd the Gift of Teaching from the Influence of the Holy Spirit, (tor Teaching as well as Prophefying, is a Gift of the Spirit) and in the Exercise of it behave with Decency, Modefty and Submiffion. In this Manner has the judicious Locke expounded the seeming Prohibitions of Women's Speaking and Teaching in the Church, For, in the first Part of his Notes aforecited, having fhown that Praying and Prophefying were Actions which Women publickly perform❜d in the Church of Corinth, and that it was a Privilege they were to enjoy under the Gofpel, he then says, St. Paul's forbidding Women to fpeak in the Affemblies, will probably feem a strong Argument against this: But when well confidered will perhaps prove none. There be two Pla⚫ces wherein the Apostle forbids Women to speak in the Church, 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. and 1 Tim. ii. II, 12. He that fhall attentively compare thefe ⚫ together, may obferve that the Silence injoin'd the Woman, is for a Mark of their Subjection to the Male Sex: And therefore what in the One • is exprefs'd by keeping Silence, and not speaking, • but being under Obedience, in the other is called, being in Silence with all Subjection, not teaching, nor ufurping Authority over the Man. The Women in the Churches were not to affume the Perfonage of Doctors, or speak there as Teach⚫ers; this carried with it the Appearance of Superiority, and was forbidden; nay, they were not fo much as to ask Questions there, or to ⚫ enter into any fort of Conference. This fhews a Kind

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Kind of Equality, and was also forbidden: But & yet, tho' they were not to speak in the Church in their own Names, or as if they were raised by ⚫ the Franchises of Chriftianity, to fuch an Equality with the Men, that where Knowledge or Prefumption of their own Abilities emboldned them to it, they might take upon them to be Teachers and Inftructors of rhe Congregation, or might at leaft enter into Queftionings and Debates there. This would have had too great an Air of ftandiug upon even Ground with the Men, and would not have well comported with the Subordination of the Sex. But yet this Sub• ordination, which God for Orders fake had in• ftituted in the World, hinder'd not, but that by the Supernatural Gifts of the Spirit, he might make Ufe of the weaker Sex, to any extraordi' nary Function when-ever he thought fit, as well as he did of the Men. But yet, when they thus * either Pray'd or Prophefy'd by the Motion and Impulfe of the Holy Ghoft, Care was taken that whilst they were obeying God, who was pleas'd by his Spirit to fet them a fpeaking, the Subjection of their Sex fhould not be forgotten, but owned and preferved by their being cover'd. The Christian Religion was not to give Offence by any Appearance or Sufpicion that it took aC way the Subordination of the Sexes, and fet the • Women at Liberty from their natural Subjection to the Man. And therefore we fee that in both thefe Cafes, the Aim was to maintain and fecure the confeffed Superiority and Dominion of the Man, and not permit it to be invaded fo much as in Appearance. Hence the Arguments in the one Cafe for Covering, and in the other for Silence, are all drawn from the natural Superiority of the Man, and the Subjection of the Woman. In the one

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the Woman, without an extraordinary Call, was to keep filent, as a Mark of her Subjection: In the other, where fhe was to Speak by an extraordinary Call and Commiffion from God, fhe was yet to continue the Profeffion of her Subjection in keeping her felf covered. Here by the Way it is to be obferved, that there was extraordinary praying to God by the Impulse of the Spirit, as well as Speaking unto Men for their Edification, Exhortation and Comfort: Vid. Ch: xiv. 15. Rom. viii. 26. Jude ver. 20.

THIS Expofition of Locke's, we see has perfectly reconcil'd the Words of the Apostle, and fhows plainly that no Prohibition lies in Scripture against Women's Speaking in the Churches, when they are influenced and mov'd thereto by the Spirit of God, provided they obferve, whenever they fpeak in the Affembly, a Decorum fuitable, and becoming their Sex. And,

THE Holy Scriptures inform us, that there were Women who labour'd with the Apostle Paul in the Propagation of the Gofpel. I commend unRom.16.1 to you, fays Paul to the Romans, Phebe our Sifter, which is a Servant of the Church which is at Cenchrea. Tho' our Tranflators were pleas'd to call Phebe only a Servant* of the Church, yet the Apostle

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*The Word Nanovos occurs fo frequently in Paul's Epifles, and is so often us'd by him for a Minifter of the Gofpel, that we know not what could make our Tranflators call Phebe a Servant and not a Minifter of the Church in Cenchrea, unless the common Prejudice imbib'd by moft Profeffors of Chriftianity, That no Woman can be a Minifter in the Church of Chrift

The Apoftle calls Timothy Jednovos T8 Je a Minifter of God, I Thels. 3. 2. Τιμόθεον τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν καὶ διάκονον σε θεοῦ καὶ συνεργὸν ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ ἐνα[γελίῳ τε χριςοῦ,Timothy

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calls her Minister of the Church in Cenchrea, (διάκονον δ ἐκκλησίας δ ἐν Κεχρεαῖς) and in divers other Places of Scripture they have translated the fame See Thef. Word, Minifter, as when Paul calls himself 3. 2. Jednovos, Minifter, and Timothy and Apollos and Cor. 3. 5.Sc.

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AND feveral of the Ancient Greek Fathers fay fhe was a Minister of great Renown. Theodoret who lived about Three Hundred Years after the Apoftles, fays, That the Fame of Phebe was fpread throughout the World, and that fhe ⚫ was known not only to the Romans and Greeks, but alfo to the Barbarians. And Theophilact < fays, Because this Matron brought this Epiftle to the Romans, therefore the Apostle com⚫ mends

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our Brother, and Minifter of God, and our Fellow-Labourer in the Gospel of Chrift, Here we obferve that Paul gives the fame Epithets to Timothy as he does to Phebe and Prifcilla: He calls Timothy Siánovos Minifter, and fo he does Phebe. He calls Timothy Guvepycs Fellow-Labourer and Priscilla and Aquila ouvepyous Fellow- Labourers, tho' in the common Tranflation 'tis Helpers.

Himfelfand Apollos he calls idxovos Minifters, 1 Cor. 3,5. Who then is Paul? and who is Apollos? but Minifters by whom ye believed. And 2 Cor. 11. 15. Are they Ministers of Chrift, Saxovor Xpisou, I am more. And the very fame Épithet he gives alfo to Chrift, Rom. 15.8. 22 Inσouv χρισὸν διάκονον γεγενῆσαι περιζομῆς. Now I fay that Jefus Chrift was a Minister of the Circumcifion.

*Theodoreti. In univerfa Terra celebris Mulier facta eft ; nec eam foli Romani & Græci cognoverunt, fed etiam Bar bari omnes.

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† Theophilati. Επειδὴ ἅντη ἦν διακομίζεσα την επιςολήν, συνιςᾷ ἀυτὴν αὐτοῖς. σεμνύνει δὲ τάυτην, καὶ διὰ τῆ πρώτης μνηθῆναι, καὶ διὰ τῇ ἀδελφὴν ὀνομάσαι (ὁ μέγα ἀξίωμα καὶ διὰ τὰ διάκονον δυσαν δεῖ αι. Quia hæc matrona epiftolam hanc adferebat, ideo eam commendat ipfis. Peculiari autem hanc honore afficit, & quod primo loco mentioném ejus facit, & per hoc quòd Sororem appellat, (quæ ingens fanè eft dignitas) & per hoc quòd oftendit eam miniftram fuifle.

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